1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to an image forming method using an ink jet method.
2. Description of the Related Art
Ink jet technology is an image forming method which is widely expected in the fields of office printers, home printers, and the like and in the commercial field because a desired image can be formed on various recording media.
A water-based ink attracts attention as an ink used for ink jet recording in consideration of solvents, the global environment, and the work environment. However, a solvent of a water-based ink contains water as a major component. Therefore, a liquid film of a water-based ink, applied onto a recording medium, is difficult to dry as compared to a case where a solvent is an organic solvent. In particular, since high-speed printing has been required in recent years, various techniques, which focus on the drying of an ink liquid film during image formation and the curing of an ink liquid film, are disclosed.
As techniques which focus on the drying of an ink liquid film, for example, disclosed are methods (for example, refer to JP-2002-137375A, JP-2003-136692A, and JP-2005-138463A) of controlling hydrothermal conditions and heating conditions of a recording medium; and a method (for example, refer to JP-2010-012752A) of causing a recording medium, onto which an ink is ejected, to pass through the inside of a waveguide, to which electromagnetic waves are supplied, and controlling the intensity of the electromagnetic waves according to the parameter relating to the drying degree of the recording medium.
As a technique which focuses on the curing of an ink liquid film, disclosed is a method (for example, JP-2011-195822A) of preparing an ink as an aqueous ink composition which includes a water-soluble polymerizable compound containing two or more polymerizable functional groups each selected from the group consisting of a (meth)acrylamide group, a maleimide group, a vinyl sulfone group, and an N-vinyl amide group, wherein a ratio of a molecular weight of the compound relative to a number of the polymerizable functional groups contained in a single molecule of the compound is 175 or less; a polymerization initiator; and water.